New York Realtors

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Welcome to the most current Housing Trends eNewsletter. This eNewsletter is specially designed for you, with national and local housing information that you may find useful whether you’re in the market for a home, thinking about selling your home, or just interested in homeowner issues in general.

The Housing Trends eNewsletter contains the latest information from the National Association of REALTORS®, the U.S. Census Bureau, Realtor.org reports and other sources.

Housing Trends eNewsletter is filled with local and national real estate sales and price activity provided by MLSs and the National Association of Realtors, U.S. Census Bureau key market indicators, consumer videos, blogs, real estate glossary, mortgage rates and calculators, consumer articles, and REALTOR.com local community reports.

If you are interested in determining the value of your home, click the “Home Evaluator” link for a free evaluation report:

Sound decisions can only be made with accurate and reliable information, and I am happy to be a trusted resource for you. Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with this monthly eNewsletter, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have and to the opportunity to be your REALTOR® in the future.

Hit the Health Insurance TAB, CLICK on MORE INFO Fill In your CONTACT INFORMATION.. and you will get a call back from one of OUR REPS

The Healthcare Reform Specialist will:1. Consult with you, to see if you qualify for a subsidy via the Affordability Care Act using their patented subsidy calculator.

2. If a subsidy is available, NBOA Inc. can and will begin the process of explaining the plan options to help you or your client make the most informed decision when it comes to Obamacare.

3. If a subsidy is not available NBOA Inc. will present to you alternative options such as Assurant Health, Blue Cross, United Health Care and of course Short Term Medical/Health Insurance Innovations.

That means if someone owes $150,000 on their home and it sells for $100,000 in a foreclosure auction, they could owe taxes on the remaining $50,000. For someone in the 25% tax bracket, that would mean paying $12,500 in taxes on the foreclosure. Similar taxes would apply for amounts that were forgiven in short sales and principal reductions.

"Allowing the act to expire would harm these families and their communities, and it would run counter to current loss mitigation efforts," wrote Tim Pawlenty, president of the Financial Services Roundtable, Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, and John Dalton, president of the Housing Policy Counsel, in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee.

So far, though, very little has been done to extend the act as Republicans and Democrats continue to butt heads over the fiscal cliff.

Many mortgage borrowers would be affected. More than 50,000 homeowners lose homes to foreclosure each month. Meanwhile, the number of short sales has tripled over the past three years to a rate of about half a million a year. And, under the terms of the $25 billion foreclosure abuse settlement, roughly one million borrowers may have their mortgage debt lowered through principal reductions over the next couple of years.

"If there ever was a no-brainer in housing policy, this would be it," said Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst for Guggenheim Securities.

Congress may return to the act after the other fiscal cliff issues are resolved, but by then the housing market will have taken a hit, said Elise Brooks Perkins, communications director for the Financial Services Roundtable. "It can be done retroactively, but the lag time will have a chilling effect on homeowners considering a short sale," she said.

Most short sellers will not follow through on sales to closing without debt forgiveness in place. Instead, they'll fight foreclosure, prolonging the housing crisis.

Congressman Brad Miller, however, said he doesn't see debt forgiveness passing unless it's part of a larger fiscal cliff deal.

Still, the price tag for such an exemption could make it a point of contention, said Seiberg. The office of Sen. Max Baucus, who heads the Senate Finance Committee, estimated the cost of a one-year extension at $1.3 billion.

Even if Congress allowed the mortgage debt forgiveness to expire, not all borrowers who lose their home to foreclosure, sell their home in a short sale or have their principal reduced will take a tax hit. If the debt is discharged in a bankruptcy, no tax is due. And anyone who is insolvent -- meaning they have more debt than assets -- at the time the debt was forgiven would not have to pay the tax.

And in some states like California, certain borrowers are protected against paying the tax because of the way the state treats foreclosures.

2013’s Top 10 Healthiest Housing Markets

Houston and San Francisco are the nation’s healthiest housing markets heading into 2013. They have solid fundamentals, without the extreme price swings of Las Vegas, Phoenix, or Detroit.

Along with our take on what’s in and what’s out for housing in 2013, I’ve got my eye on 10 “healthy” housing markets with solid fundamentals. The healthy markets that made the list have strong job growth (Bureau of Labor Statistics), which bodes well for housing demand; low vacancy rates (U.S. Postal Service)–low enough to encourage new construction, but not so low that inventory and sales are restrained; and low foreclosure inventory (RealtyTrac), since foreclosures tend to hold back recovery.

But why, you might ask, aren’t rising prices included as part of our definition of healthy local housing markets? Because many of the markets with the largest price gains in 2012 were rebounding from huge price declines during the bust, but they still have weak fundamentals, such as high vacancy rates, large foreclosure inventories, or slow job growth. For instance, Las Vegas and Phoenixboth have high vacancy rates and large foreclosure inventories going into 2013, despite having year-over-year asking-price increases of 14% and 27%, respectively, according to the November Trulia Price Monitor. And Detroit has a sky-high vacancy rate and is suffering job losses, even though asking prices in Detroit rose 10% year-over-year. Just as losing lots of weight might be part of an unhealthy cycle of yo-yo dieting, big price gains aren’t necessarily a sign of a healthy housing market if they’re being driven by a post-crash rebound, rather than solid fundamentals. That’s why Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Detroit aren’t on the healthiest-markets list for 2013.

Monday, December 17, 2012

A big growth in new household formation is expected to drive up housing starts in the new year that will outpace the apartment boom, according to forecasts by Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist Frank Nothaft.

Nothaft is forecasting a net growth of 1.2 to 1.25 million new households in 2013 that will provide a big boost to housing starts next year. That expected growth also will likely drive down apartment vacancy rates to 10-year lows and outpace the boom in new apartment construction, Nothaft says.

Unemployment is expected to improve slightly in 2013 and the job and income gains will help jump-start more household formation, according to Nothaft. Also, more adult children who took up residence in their parents' homes are expected to move out next year, helping to increase household formation.

“The last few months have brought a spate of favorable news on the U.S. housing market with construction up, more home sales, and home-value growth turning positive,” Nothaft says. “This has been a big change from a year ago, when some analysts worried that the looming ‘shadow inventory’ would keep the housing sector mired in economic depression. Instead, the housing market is healing, is contributing positively to GDP and is returning to its traditional role of supporting the economic recovery.”